Bar owner apologizes after Polynesian men turned away

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Bar-owner-apologizes-after-Polynesian-men-turned-6839604.php

A Salt Lake City bar owner has apologized after one of his employees refused to serve two Polynesian men because of their ethnicity.

Patron Frank Maea said he and a friend had just entered Willie's Lounge and ordered a drink when the bartender checked his ID and asked if he was Polynesian. When he confirmed that he was, she said she couldn't serve him....

He said he has an informal rule allowing female bartenders working alone at night to turn away people who look like they could make trouble, and acknowledged that he has included Polynesian people in that category.

"White people too, you just don't hear about them," Cloyd said. "Whether they are Polynesian, just got out of jail, have neck tattoos, look like they are hooked on drugs, across all spectrums, not just Polynesians. It just so happens, our problem has been with Polynesians."

[Cleita]

1. Wtf a public bar in Salt Lake City you can just walk into?

Wtf Polynesians in Salt Lake City? Every time I was there I had to wear sun glasses to cut down the glare from the very white inhabitants. Okay don't get offended. I jest.

However, seriously, why are Polynesians or anyone for that matter hanging around a city that is not a vacation destination unless they want to join the Church of Latter Day Saints. I mean it's like going to the Vatican without all the art work. The only reason I end up there is because it's in the way of places I do want to go to so I have to pass through.

[Kurska]

2. Erm, maybe they live there man.

Maybe they have family and are visiting. Maybe they are really into nature, Utah is actually a rather beautiful state for that.

A million reasons it isn't like Utah is 100% white.

[Cleita]

4. No, more like 99.9% white. I think I saw one brown person there

in a decade of traveling through there. Also a bar in SLC is not the wilderness. I understand there are Native Americans there somewhere. I just never saw one.

[Kurska]

5. Salt Lake city is only 70% non-hispanic white.

Maybe you haven't been there recently.

In the 70's it was Indeed 90 some odd percent white, but that has changed as other people moved in and whites moved to smaller towns.

[Cleita]

8. It's been about twenty years. I just found it a really peculiar place. eom

[KamaAina]

3. From the article:

The Salt Lake City area has a relatively large community of people of Polynesian descent. Originally drawn to Utah by Mormon missionaries in the 19th century, the state today has nearly 27,000 people who identify as being Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, census figures show. That's more than every state other than California, Hawaii and Washington.

Polynesians, including Native Hawaiians, were quite receptive to Mormon missionaries because of their shared love of genealogy.

[Cleita]

7. I stand corrected and my sympathies are with those people who experienced

that bigotry. For reasons I can't go into because it would be a very long discussion, I find Utahns very bigoted about religion and it always put me off. Looks like the bigotry has expanded. Also, really there are bars you can walk into without buying a membership, now?

[MineralMan]

9. See #3, below.

You are incorrect in your assumption regarding Polynesians in SLC. Why should those residents of that city be discriminated against in a public establishment. It's, well, racism at work, it seems to me.

It's clear that you aren't familiar with that city. Neither am I, but I am familiar with racism in many places. It's always ugly.

From Wikipedia:

At the 2010 census, the city's population was 75.1% White, 2.7% African American, 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 4.4% Asian, 2.0% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 10.7% from other races and 3.7% of mixed descent. 22.3% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

2% is a sizable population of one specific group.

[Cleita]

10. Presumptuous aren't you that you think you know where I have been.

Obviously you haven't been there through your own admission so you don't know. Of course it was racism and racism comes from fear of those who are different. People who have not interacted much with people not like them will fear those they are unfamiliar with.

[MineralMan]

11. Actually, I've been in SLC a number of times.

As it happens, my father's family were Utah-living Mormons. I haven't been there for many years, except to transit through the airport, so I looked up its demographics to determine its racial makeup today.

You supposed there weren't many people from that part of the Pacific there. As it turns out, there are quite a few. I didn't know, so I looked it up after seeing someone else's numbers. That person was correct.

[shanti]

12. if you can access pbs.org

there is an excellent documentary about polynesians in and around SLC. the show focuses on the young men obtaining football scholarships. the community has a big problem with gangs, like many other POC, and football is considered their way out. i'm not a football fan, but i found it fascinating.

http://www.pbs.org/search/?q=polynesians%2C+football

the program i saw was on independent lens.

[snooper2]

6. I googled pictured ...just what I thought, definition of a dive lol